• I know it sounds like a nag, but please remember that Memorial Day is more than a three-day weekend, more than sales, more than roasted Koegels. Remember those who gave their lives for us, OK? Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said it best: "They are dead; but they live in each patriot's breast, and their names are engraven on honor's bright crest."

• Oh, and by the way, please stay off the roads this weekend. I want to use them.

• I'm in a summer mood all of sudden. The forecast this weekend better be right. I need sunshine. I need warmth. I need to wear shorts. My legs need air, darn it!

• The reality of hammocks is never as good as you imagine, is it?

• Bags (cornhole, whatever) is the best lawn game ever. Although that newish one with the bolos is close. It's fun, but it won't be long before my kids are using them to brain one another. My kids are very predictable.

• Lou Pearlman, who created a lot of the boy bands like N'Sync and Backstreet Boys, was sentenced this week to 25 years in prison for bilking investors out of $300 million. And yet he didn't get a single day for ruining music in the '90s. Go figure.

• Art Busch running for county commissioner? Hey, why not? Once in politics around here, always in politics around here. The same people keep running for office, and we keep re-electing them. It's like a recycling program, only the cost is lack of new blood, new ideas. And you wonder why things never change.

• Busch is off to a good, if bizarre, start, at least. In announcing his run against incumbent Ted Henry, Busch instead attacked ... Woodrow Stanley. (Busch and Stanley; Hatfield and McCoy. Same thing.) Picking on Woodrow is always a good thing in my book. (See above.)

• Is it me or is there less interest in the Pistons than in past years? Have we become spoiled by conference finals? Or do we somehow sense that this team doesn't quite have "it" and isn't going all the way anyway? May I eat those words.

• American Airlines is now charging to check bags. The first bag is $15. Second bag is $30. And if you want to bring a third bag, you have to agree to serve the in-flight meal.

• Don and Jean Wolfe, who own Dale's Natural Foods on Miller Road, write, "Thanks for your positive note about Miller Road shopping. Customers are terrified to come out here because of all the press coverage. The work is going on in segments and west of Best Buy is wide open."

• Don and Jean, you're right. I've been through the construction a few times, and it's a slow go but not terribly so. Look, people, we can't afford to lose businesses out there. Make an extra effort to support them this summer.

• Need Has a Face. This week it looks like Sarah, who recently regained custody of her children. She's employed but struggling. She needs a twin bed and dining room chairs. To help, call Meghan Scollon at Judson Center, (810) 732-8510. Information provided by the Resource Center, (810) 767-0500.

• "Be bold. If you're going to make an error, make a doozy" -- Billie Jean King, tennis player.